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A record crowd of 45,423 saw Ramona Bachmann bag a brace to set Chelsea up for a 3-1 SSE FA Women's Cup Final win against Arsenal at a sun-soaked Wembley Stadium.

Following a goal-less opening 45 minutes, it took Swiss international Bachmann, just 180 seconds to break the deadlock in the second half with a neat finish after being set up by livewire Fran Kirby.

Bachmann, who was named Player of the Match, curled home a second soon after, via a slight deflection, before Arsenal pulled a goal back through Vivianne Miedema with 16 minutes remaining.

But any hopes of a Gunners fightback were dashed when England striker Kirby swiftly netted a third Chelsea goal with a sublime curling effort into the top left corner.

The introduction of Danielle Carter added some extra impetus and thrust to Arsenal's attack, but the Blues were in no mood to relinquish their two-goal cushion a second time and ran down the clock comfortably to gain revenge for their 2016 Final defeat.

Speaking after the game a beaming Bachmann said. “It’s an amazing feeling. Every footballer dreams to one day play at Wembley, and to win feels amazing! I haven’t scored that much this year: it’s not important when you have Fran to your side, who scores all the time!

"It doesn’t matter who scores, though it was an amazing feeling to score in front of so many people.”

Emma Hayes’ side could yet go on to claim a memorable League and Cup 'Double'. The Blues are looking to edge ahead of rivals Manchester City, whom they beat in the FA Cup semi-final, over the closing weeks of the Women’s Super League.

"This is more enjoyable than the first time around (winning the FA Cup in 2015) because that was such a dominant performance from us," said Chelsea boss Emma.

“The quality of the goals showed the difference between the two sides. With a record crowd, I’m very pleased that people watching have seen a very high standard of football."

Arsenal's Australian coach Joe Montemurro remained upbeat in the face of defeat. He added: "Obviously I’m disappointed, but let’s speak truthfully, they’re a powerful team and a good team and they’ve got players that can unlock games. The big-game players play on the big stages and they did that.

“We have come a long way in the 20 weeks that I’ve been here. We’re starting to find a little bit of rhythm and we’re starting to find a little bit of base that is synonymous with Arsenal.

“We still need to do a lot of work and maybe the amount of games over the last 10 to 15 days has taken its toll, but I take away nothing from my players, they were mammoth.”

Arsenal had won the FA Cup a record 14 times prebiously, having only ever lost one final.

For Chelsea skipper Katie Chapman, Saturday's victory also marked a record 10th Women's FA Cup success in a sparkling career 21 years after her first Cup win in 1997 with Millwall Lionesses, aged just 14!

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